How does a bass stand out?!

How does a bass stand out?

Just wondering... most songs I've heard, the vocalist obviously stands out, the guitarist stands out the second most, and the drums are very obvious too. So you can tell if someone is a good singer, guitarist, or drummer... but it's very hard to hear a bass, especially in a loud song, where the guitar seems to be taking over everything.

Is it because I listen with my headphones? A lot of people say, "this song has awesome bass" but I can't judge it...

Bass isn't necessarily always meant to stand out. A lot of the time bassists are working hard to coordinate the rhythm section with the chordal parts. The bass may be playing a similar line to the guitar only an octave or more lower in order to make the chords or riff sound fuller. You'll notice it if you heard it missing, but you might assume it's other instruments making the noise.

Also, as suggested by someone else, make sure you know what a bass sounds like, it has more range than you might think and can be mistaken for a guitar, especially if it has a distorted tone.

If you want to hear the bass guitar as a focus of the music there are a number of bassists who are up front in the mix of their recordings. Besides Flea there's Les Claypool of Primus, Victor Wooten, Jaco Pastorius, Geddy Lee of Rush. Any of these will help you to appreciate a few different artists all doing more "flashy" work on the bass.